Word family noun dead death deadliness adjective dead deadly deathly verb deaden adverb deadly deathly
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdeadendead‧en /ˈdedn/ verb [transitive] REDUCEto make a feeling or sound less strong medicine to deaden the pain→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
deaden• Repetition is considered to be deadening, boring, thoughtless.• Alcohol serves to deaden feelings which the individual can not manage, or wishes to avoid.• If he couldn't lose the feeling, perhaps he could deaden it.• Before that time, alcohol had been in general use to deaden pain, though some sturdy souls rejected it on principle.• He drank alcohol to deaden the pain.• Soundposts are an important feature of bowed instruments but are unsuitable for plucked instruments and will deaden the sound of a dulcimer.• It would be spring soon, but I had been too deadened to notice.• When you listen to the radio, the music deadens your rhythm and causes you to create uniform sentences. 